Game



A. ROSE, JR

July 9, 1940.

GAME

Filed May 26, 1938 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 A. ROSE, JR 2,207,638

GAME

Filed May 26, 1938 3 Sheets Sheet 2 ,1 v 4 65 I I I o l 55 4w" if 3m 53' fliilzroae [3 July 9, 1940.

A. ROSE, JR

GAME

Filed May 26, 1938 s Sheets-Sheet 5 flmZ/we R059 c/i",

Patented July 9, 1940 UNITEDv STATES PATENT orncs GAME Ambrose Rose, Jr., Lawrenccville, 111. Application May 26, 1938, Serial No.'210,23'0

3 Claims (01. 273-138) Thisinventionrelates'to an indoor golf game capable of being played by one, two, three or four players similarly to the conventional outdoor game of golf.

the winner.

Another object of the invention is to provide a p board or mat adapted tobe placed on a table and constructed to form a topographic golf course between each tee and hole 'of which are placed a plurality of calibrated points certain of which will be reached by each of the players as a result of each operation of the chance machine between the tee and the green.

.It is a further object of the invention to provide a revolva'bl'e calibrated element adapted to be mounted inthe chance machine and having a plurality of calibrated sections to correspond to sections of said machine with the calibrations or markings corresponding to those on the golf course, said machine being operated to indicate a calibrations-n said strip to thereby indicate the move tobe made on the course.

A further aim of the invention, is to provide a topographic golf course which may be constructed of metal, composition board or other suitable material which is coloredand contoured to simulate a conventional golf course, being provided with bunkers, creeks, water holes, sand traps and other conventional hazards.

Other objects and advantages'o-f the invention will hereinafter become more fully apparent from the following description of the drawings, which it is to be understood are intended only to illustrate va preferred form of the invention, and

wherein Figure 1 is a top plan view of the mat, board or of an actual golf course,

I Figure 2 is a side elevational view of the golf course as seen in Figure 1,

Figure 3 is a top plan view of the chance ma chine or mechanism used in conjunction with the golf course,

Figure 4' is a vertical central sectional View taken'on the line 4-4 of :Figure 3,

designated generally l4.

Figure '5 is a side elevational view of one of the markers or Teed-balls,

Figure "6 is a top plan view of the annular strip which is revolvably mounted in the machine, a portion of said machine being shown in broken lines, and

Figure "7 is a cross sectional view taken on the line ll of. Figure 6.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, wherein like reference characters indicate like or corresponding parts throughout the different views, lll designates generally the topographic golf course which may be mounted on any suitable backing i I such as a board, mat or the like, which'may be any desired size, and of folding or separable sections if desired. The topographic upper portion 12 surrounds an open space l3 in the center of the board in which "is removably positioned the chance mechanism or machine As seen in Figure 2, the topographic portion I2 is contoured to simulate a conventional golf course, and as seen in Figure 1 the portion I2 is provided with 18 tees l5, numbered chronologically, with a green l6 and hole ll for each tee l5. 2'5

Each of the tees l 5 are numbered, and are marked with the number of yards, the par and a letter enclosed in a circle for a purpose which will hereinafter "be described. In the fairway l8 and at the sides thereof in each hole of the course, are formed various hazards, such as the water holes T9, the trees or shrubs 20 forming the roughs at thesides of the fairway l8, sand traps 2 I, bunkers 22, creeks 23 provided with the bridges 24 as well as other suitable forms of hazards which may be applied if desired. The course I2 is also provided with a 'plurality'of calibrations designated 25 and including a numeral followed by one or more letters enclosed in a circle and intended to illustrate the various possible positions that a played 40 ball might come to rest on the course. The purpose of the calibrations 25 will hereinafter be more fully explained in conjunction with the chance machine with which the topographic course H! is used. The machineor chance mchanism M which 46 is adapted to be positioned in the space l3, includesa top plate 26, which is cylindrical in shape, and which is provided with the four triangular shaped depressions 21 which converge inwardly and are inclined downwardly toward their converging ends as best seen in Figure 4. A concave disk 28, :provided with a central opening 29 and with an annular strip 30 secured to its upper side and extending inwardly fromits outer edge, supportsthe plate 25 which is provided witha de- 5i;

pending flange 3| which rests on the strip 30. Strip 30 is provided with four equally spaced semicircular radially disposed grooves 32, and the flange 3| is provided with four semi-circular cut out portions 33 which communicate with said grooves to form the openings 34 as seen in Figure 4. Disk 28 is provided with the angular shaped baiiles 35, one of which is disposed between each of the openings 34 and the opening 29 as seen in Figure 4.

An annular member 36 surrounds the disk 28 and is bent to form the annular groove 37, the outer upwardly extending flange 38 and the inner curved flange 39 on which disk 28 is supported.

Fastenings 38' secure cover 26, disk 28 and the member 36 together.

A convex disk 48 is disposed beneath and in spaced relationship to the disk 28, and is provided with the upwardly flared edge 4i which is secured to the intermediate portion of member 36 by the fastenings 42. Disk 40 is provided on its upper face with four radially disposed guideways 43 which are channel shaped in cross section and which communicate at their outer ends with the depressions 44' disposed beneath the openings 45 in the flange 38 which are in turn beneath the grooves 32 in the strip 30, as seen in Figure 3. The flange 38 is provided with the cut out portions 45 disposed in a plane to openings 34 and 45. An annular spacing strip 46 is mounted on the under side of disk 45 by the fastenings 42 to space the socket nuts 47, which form. the supporting legs or feet for the machine l4, below the disk 40.

As seen in Figures 6 and 7, an annular strip 48, shaped to correspond to flange 38 is provided with four sections of calibrations 49 each including a row of letters having a numeral beneath each letter. Projecting outwardly from the under side of strip 48, and beneath the sections marked L thereon, are the four equally spaced handle members 50. Strip 48 is mounted on the under side of flange 38 and held in position by the portion 5| of the strip 46 and by the ring 52 having the recessed portion 53. Ring 52 is secured to the outer edge of flange 38'by the fastenings 53' to which are connected the stops 54 which depend downwardly to engage the handles 55 to limit the movement of strip 48, which is revolvably mounted, to a quarter of a turn in either direction.

The machine 14 is divided into four sections each including one of' the recesses 21, an opening 34 and 45, and a cut out portion 45, these sections being divided by imaginary lines extending radially from the center of the machine through the fastenings 53 to which the stops 54 are connected, each of which sections are distinctively colored and adapted to be used by one of the players. Each of the players are provided with a plurality of the spherical playing pieces or balls 55 and with. a marker hereafter to be referred to as a teed-ball 56, as seen in Figure 5. The teed-balls 55 are shaped to simulate a golf ball and are provided with a base 51 shaped tosimulate a tee. Each section of the machine M has a teed-ball 56 and a number of the playing balls 55 colored to correspond to the color of the particular section.

A description of play of the first hole, will furnish a clear understanding of the construction of the game and the method of playing the entire 18 holes. The machine M as heretofore mentioned is divided into four sections each of which is distinctively colored and provided with a plurality of playing balls 55 and a teed-ball 56. Each player selects the color he desires to use and with that color of the machine in front of him takes the set of playing balls and the teedball to match. Strip 48 is turned by one of the handles so that letter A and the numeral therebeneath is visible through each of the cut out portions 45. The first player then puts one of his playing balls into the groove 32, which is in front of him, and the ball rolls bygravity through opening 34, around the baffle plate 36 and downwardly to and through opening 29 from where it drops onto the center of disk 40 and is directed by gravity through one of the guideways 43 to one of the four depressions 44 disposed adjacent one of the cut out portions 45.

The number exposed beneath the letter A on the strip 48 indicates the position on the course In at which the teed-ball 58 is to be placed. The playing ball 55 is then removed through opening 45 and placed in the depression 21 in front of the player to be left until the first hole has been completed. A new ball is used for each shot and aftertheplay'is placed in recess 2 All of the balls in each of the recesses 27 are counted at the end of each hole and the player having the fewest balls in his recess wins the hole, since each ball represents aplay or stroke for that particular hole. After each hole the balls are removed from'recess 21 and placed in the groove 3'! in front of the player.

The numbered or calibrated strip 48 has the four sections of calibrations 49 each including the letters alphabetically arranged in a row from A to W inclusive, and a numeral beneath each are different beneaththe corresponding letter of each section. All of the 19 numbers do not occur in each quarter section, and some of the numbers occur several times in each section. The numbers indicate the position on the golf course, which are included in the calibrations 25, while the letters on the calibrations 49 correspond to the letters in the calibrations 25. The four corresponding letters are always exposed through the cut out portions 45'. The play of the first hole of the course is as follows, at the first tee on the golf course l8, numbered 1 is the letter A. The letter on each tee indicates the position at which the strip 48 should be tofore explained. Assuming that the ball reaches the depression 44 adjacent to the cut out portion 45 containing the calibration A2, the player then places his teed-ball 56 on the number 2 7 position of the calibration 25 on hole I of the course [8. The other players then take their turn and repeat the first players procedure. The player who is the farthest from the green l6 then makes hissecond shot, and this would be the player who is in the number 2 position on the first hole. It will be noticed that the number 2 is followed by the letter B, which indicates, that the SfilTip 48 must be turned until the letters B are; exposed for the next shot. Asecond ball is then dropped into the machine and will finally reach one of the'depressions 44. The four letters B contain the numeralsb, 6, 7 and 8. Assume because the numeral 8 in the calibration 25 is 1 followed by the letter H. The four letters H when exposed will show the numerals 9, 10, 11 and 14. 'Assum'ethat the ball reaches the depression 4d beneath the numeral 14 in the cut out portion 45, the player will then move his I teed-ball 55 to the calibration 25 containing the numeral 14 which is directly between the twosand traps l2 on the first hole of the golf course Ill. The numeral 14 is followed by the letter K so the machine is again set so that the letters K on the strip 48 are exposed. These letters contain the numerals 15, 16, 17 and 18. If the next playing ball reaches the depression 44 adjacent the numeral 1'7, the teed-ball is moved to position 17, and when the players next turn arrives strip 48 is turned until the letters N are exposed and the play is repeated. It will be noticed that the letter N contains the numerals l8, zero, 18. and zero. If the playing ball 55 comes out at one of the depressions 44 beneath the numeral zero this means that the player holed out and finished the first hole. When all of the players are holed out, each player counts his balls which have been placed in the recesses 21 to indicate the number of strokes that he has used in playing the hole. It will be noticed that this particular player has used 5 balls, and at the first tee it will be noticed that the par is 5, meaning that he has completed the hole in par. The par for the entire course or 18 holes is '72, and it is possible to complete the course in less than 72 strokes or it may require many more strokes, the result depending entirely upon chance so that no skill is required to play the game.

On some of the holes of the course it will be seen that some of the calibrations 25 include a numeral followed by more than one letter, this being particularly true in the sand traps 2|, the water holes l9, bunkers 22, and in the creeks 23. All of the letters must be played in the order listed if the player happens to reach a calibration 25 containing more than one letter and the next play leaves the player in the same position.

For example position number 4 on hole 9 is followed by the letters D, D and B. When a player reaches position 4 on this hole, he takes the next shot with the disk 48 exposing the letters D and if on this shot he again reaches position 4 he shoots again with the letters D exposed and if he should play into position 4 again he then plays with the machine set so that the letters B areexpcsed. Shooting from this point he may on the next shot shoot out of and over the creek 23.

Should two players arrive at the same position, the first player having reached the position would be the first to take the next shot, and in all other cases the player at the lowest numbered position is assumed to be the farthest from the green or cup and will therefore shoot first. The sequence for each player and for each of the 18 holes corresponds to the illustration given for the play of the first hole. Conventional score cards such as used in outdoor golf will accompany the game, and be used to record each players totalscore and score for each hole in the conventional manner.

Various modifications and changes may obviously be madeand are contemplated, since the drawings and description are only intended to illustrate a preferred form of the invention, and

the right is reserved to make such variations and changes as do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention as hereinafter defined by the appended claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. A device of the class described comprising a circular calibrated strip, a machine provided with a plurality of inlets and outlets, said machine having an annular portion with spaced openings and having means on its under side to revolvably support said annular strip with a row of said calibrations exposed beneath each of said openings, means connected to said strip to revolve it relatively to said annular portion, and game pieces insertable through said inlets to be directed by chanceto one of said outlets each of which are disposed adjacent one of said openings to indicate a play on a game board, calibrated to correspond to the calibrations on said strip.

2. A game apparatus comprising a chance mechanism including a body portion including a plurality of spaced superposed flights, an annular flange having openings at spaced intervals, an endless strip revolvably disposed beneath said flange and provided with a plurality of calibrated sections, correspondings portions of each of said calibrated sections .being exposed through said openings, inlets at the top of said body portion, balls insertable through said inlets, said flights being arranged on an incline and provided with openings at their lowest points through which the balls may pass downwardly, and the lowermost flight being provided with a plurality of destination points to one of which each ball will be eventually directed by gravity and chance, said destination points being contiguous with the openings in said flange to indicate a play as represented by the calibration on said trip exposed through said opening.

3. A chance mechanism comprising a base portion having a raised center and a plurality. of recesses spaced from said center and forming destination points, a cone shaped portion, means for supporting said cone "shaped portion above and in spaced relationship to said base, said cone shaped portion having a central opening, at its lowest point, disposed above the center of said base, a cap mounted above said cone shaped portion and provided with a plurality of openings through which balls may be inserted to be conveyed by gravity and chance to lodge in one of said destination points, and baffles positioned on the upper surfaces of said cone shaped portion and base for deflecting the balls during their journey.

AMBROSE ROSE, JR. 

